TWO YEARS LATER (Present Time)
DINAH
My side of this story is rather bleak. I died and then came back to life. Not many people get to say that, right? When we all decided to leave Boston and go our separate ways, I, of course, decided to go back to Fox's camp. To the people I've grown to love and respect. Living there wasn't all that fun in the beginning. They treated me with caution because my eyes glowed in the dark like a lion on the prowl, and my temper was just as short. Fox welcomed me with hope, reassuring me that I could be cured of the lenses. I still remember the look on her face when she saw me for the first time after some of the Hunters dragged me in from the woods.
Her crown rested upon her shaven head, her skin glistened in the sun. She was a goddess in the forest of trees and soil. A ruler of earth and structure of her people.
Her dark eyes laid upon me, and for the first time since my lenses were activated, I felt intimidated. I lowered my head to her in defeat, as well as respect.
"You may stand," Fox said.
The Hunters helped me get to my feet since my hands were bound behind my back. I knew I could easily break free of them, but it wouldn't have been the best decision I've ever made considering I had six strong, muscular men training their very sharp arrows at me. If I wasn't a bit intimidated, I might have been a bit turned on.
"Cut her loose," she demanded.
Once my hands fell to my side, I looked at them in question before looking up to her. She nodded once, and the pointed arrows fell to the ground.
"I trust you will not harm me with your battered hands and battered soul. Your eyes my glow, but I see through them to their truest color. I see through to your truest color. And you, Glow Worm, will not betray me."
Her accent was thick, but my understanding was not. I noticeably swallowed and nodded at my queen.
"Cruz, take her and get her settled in. I expect her to be fed and given a new pair of clothes. She is one of us now, and she will not be considered anything other but an ally. Treat her as such."
Cruz, as Fox called him, bowed his Mohawk clad head before walking over to me and taking me by my arm. His touch was assertive, but warm. I overheard Fox tell her people something in a language I didn't quite understand to see everyone disperse to go on about their day and tasks.
"My name is Dinah, by the way. We never got a chance to formally meet," I said to Cruz who was still walking me by my arm.
He didn't say a word in response, just kept walking me over to a hut or some kind of house made of sticks and other various supplies found around the vast forest they were settled in.
"Tough crowd," I whispered under my breath.
We encroached on a fire, and Cruz pushed me down harshly by my shoulder onto a log.
"Sit."
I wanted to retaliate, my temper starting to flare, but I clenched my fists instead and repositioned myself more comfortably while Cruz walked inside of the hut to exit a moment later with a change of clothes and some kind of dried meat on a crooked stick.
"What is it?" I questioned as he handed it over to me.
"Eat."
He set the clothes down on the log beside me before returning back to the hut, which I presumed to be his home.
Examining the dried meat, I cautiously took a bite. Realizing I wasn't going to die from the taste, I finished it all in respect for him feeding me, even though I wasn't hungry in the slightest.
